The enemy had me in the beginning, but not anymore.

I’m not going to lie, the enemy had me in the beginning. And really, if I’m being honest, the enemy had me way longer than I should’ve ever allowed. The enemy can distract us, discourage us, he tricks us into buying lies about ourselves to the point we actually begin to believe them. A lot of us are walking around holding onto stories that are not even true about ourselves, stories that were given to us secondhand. And with full transparency, I’m quick to believe those lies sometimes. I feed into them. I spent the past month or so under attack - believing lies that I wouldn’t amount to anything, that I wasn’t capable of being loved, lies that I had no direction and this was as good as I was going to get in life. And in the midst of all of those terrible anxiety filled thoughts I asked myself the same thing God asked Adam and Eve in the garden. Who told you that? Who fed you that story? Where is this lie coming from? Sometimes those lies come from well-meaning people, friends, family, or even strangers on the street. But you know what’s truly dangerous to the devil? When a child of God knows the truth of who she is - to the extent she learns she has nothing to prove and she begins to understand there’s nothing she can do to fall out of God’s good grace. When I buy into the lie that I am bound to my past, Christ reminds me I have been set free, that I am no longer a slave but a child and an heir. When I buy into the lie that I need worldly validation to be whole, Christ reminds me that I have been made complete in Him. When I buy into the lie that I am unlovable, Christ sits with me and reminds me that I am loved and that He chose me. I am loved, I am His, I am worthy, and I am purposed.